DR Congo

According to the World Bank, the construction of Inga 3 will not start before 2017, two years later than announced by the government.. The construction of the 4,800 MW Inga 3 hydropower dam project which should have begun in October 2015 will be delayed considerably. The last indication was provided by a meeting of the…

Several African presidents have attempted to change the constitution to stay in power. It is important to enforce transparency and accountability. The role of the Church in Africa. We talked with Monsignor Fridolin Ambongo, President of the Justice and Peace Commission of the DR Congo. Why is limiting presidential mandates, imperative in Africa nowadays? Times…

The DR Congo is regarded as one of the potentially richest countries in the world. It is endowed with 155 million hectares of tropical forest in the world, with agriculture resource estimated at 80 million hectares of arable land; with hydroelectricity Inga power capacity of approximately 100,000 MW, with 55 percent of Africa’s reserves of…

The DR Congo government has decided to create 20 agro-industrial parks to tap the country’s huge agricultural potential and to address the challenge of food security. The challenge is a difficult one. According to the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, the DRC could be the food basket of Africa and even of other parts…

There are strong indications that Kabila intends to amend the constitution in order to remain in office for a third term. But such plans are controversial. The main churches, civil society organisations and opposition disagree. There are lots of indications that President Joseph Kabila Kabange is planning to run for a third term while trying…

Only 17 days after the signature of a peace agreement with the main rebel movement, an unexpected insurrection in several towns of the country showed that the DRC was far from being stabilised. Many Congolese were expecting that the signature of a peace agreement in Nairobi on the last 12 December between the Rwandan-backed M23…

Forced labour in eastern Congo is linked to the artisanal exploitation of minerals and to a continuing state of war. Two million people are directly involved: governments, NGOs, and churches raise the alarm. A Congolese fable tells that when God decided to distribute natural resources on the newly created Earth, he walked through the world…

Gold is a problematic conflict mineral in eastern DR Congo. Rebel forces and corrupt officials control the area, causing further destabilisation. Although there has been progress in decriminalising mines for tin, tungsten and tantalum in eastern Congo – three other major conflict minerals – gold is increasingly a source of revenue for renegade government forces…

On the last 22 March, the Congolese tutsi rebel general, Bosco Ntaganda was transferred to the Hague-based International criminal Court (ICC). Yet, everything remains yet to be solved on the ground in the Kivus, where the M23 rebels are creating all sorts of obstacles to the deployment of the African intervention brigade. Human rights NGOs…

UNESCO director Irina Bokova received in March “worrying information” concerning the resumption of oil exploration in the Virunga National Park by Soco International. Similar concern was expressed on March 28 by the Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders during his meeting with President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa. José Endundo, the Congolese Minister of Environment who…

The Congolese government, engrossed in the post-elections crisis, has now to deal with a mediatic bomb: a documentary is offering evidence that the murder of Human Rights activist, Floribert Chebeya was a state crime. The 94 minute documentary comes from Belgian film maker Thierry Michel. Michel already worked on “Mobutu, King of Zaire” (1999),…

Imagine a country where the results of 2,000 polling stations in the capital disappear the very evening of the elections, where at the end of polling day presidents of voting centres take the ballot boxes with them and where soldiers in rural areas force people to vote for the incumbent. These and many other…